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The National Health Insurance Authority’s management is recommending changes to the NHIA’s founding statute in order to reallocate levies within the authority’s budget.
As of right now, the Finance Ministry’s certification is required before the authority may access the consolidated accounts containing the profits of the National Health Insurance Levy.
If the current ruling is overturned, according to Dr. Dacosta Aboagye, Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, around eight billion cedis that have been collected through the NHIL might be spent in healthcare services each year.
“The NHIL which you and I pay for must be sent to the NHIL accounts. If the Finance Minister and GRA were releasing the funds, it would go a long way to help the people,” he said.
Dr Aboagye was speaking at the 24th Annual Public Lecture of the Ghana Medical Association themed; “Developing a holistic healthcare financing for the ordinary Ghanaian: Beyond the National Health Insurance Scheme.”
In accordance with Act 650, which established the NHIA, a 2.5 percent fee on products and services that are imported or delivered domestically is necessary to ensure the program runs smoothly.
Although the fund is capped, it is anticipated that the NHIL would generate GH₵7.9 billion in revenue; nevertheless, the scheme’s budget is only allocated GH₵6.8 billion.
Proposals to direct the fee into the NHIL’s account have already been made by a few health sector stakeholders.
The ideas are being taken into consideration, according to Minister Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, to make sure the program remains stable.
28 million individuals are registered in the program, 17.8 million of them are active, according to NHIA statistics.
Healthcare practitioners have complained about low tariffs that lead to what are often known as copayments in the restructuring of the program.
The steps taken to turn to an automated adjustment formula in search of a long-term answer were described by Dr. Dacosta Aboagye.
“With the automatic price adjustment, we will establish a tariff review committee based on the state of the economy and inflation to assess the prices of goods and services,” he stated.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
